It's the year when anything can and does happen so entertain this: The presidential contest ends in a 269-269 tie in the Electoral College and the election is tossed to the House of Representatives where the Dems have the edge. Right? Yes to the first part, but not the second. . . 

New Mexico would be voting for Biden as all three of our House members are Dems.

Our state won't be a cliffhanger. The Trump campaign is not putting up a fight here. After a brief flirtation with July TV ads, they've gone dark. The last poll had the President getting 39 percent here. His topline number Election Night could be about 42-43 percent, what Steve Pearce received when he lost the governorship in 2018 to MLG.

The southern congressional race still has potential for the R's. Yvette Herrell even came with an amusing TV ad defending her mother against charges that she benefitted from Yvette's service in the state House. But the race appears to be leaning Dem because Trump has not been performing in the district (up only 4 points over Biden in the Journal poll). Herrell still has time but the XTL lead of 47 to 45 is starting to look sticky. 

What's also sticky--for GOP US Senate candidate Mark Ronchetti--is what his fellow R's are up to in DC regarding the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't moment for Ronchetti. 

Trump R's want him to say fill that seat now--before the election. But Dems want the seat put on hold until after the election, a position that enrages the Trumpers. Ronchetti, trying to appease both sides, has fallen silent, but that only gets him damned--predictably--by his Dem rival, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan:

Health care is the #1 polling issue of Campaign '20. Ronchetti's TV ads strenuously assert he is for covering pre-exisiting conditions, contrary to Lujan's assertion. But the untimely death of Justice Ginsburg raises the issue to a new level and forces Ronchetti to make a stand. Or stand silent.

 (Yes, we noticed that Ben Ray shied away from the consequences to reproductive rights of a newly conservative Supreme Court, a top of the mind issue for many Dem voters in the metro areas but not as much among socially conservative Democrats in the rural areas).

Dem domination of the New Mexico Supreme Court will likely soon be absolute. The Court's lone R, Chief Justice Judy Nakamura, has set her retirement for December 1. A Democrat will almost certainly be appointed to fill her position and the two Supreme Court races on the November ballot heavily favor the Dems, meaning all five justices would be D's.

The court would be joining the all Dem NM congressional delegation, the all Dem state Senate and House, the Governorship and all statewide executive offices such as attorney general and state auditor. 

When will the state return to at least a semblance of competition between the two parties? Not until the Trump era ends and the R's learn how to appeal to the state's Hispanics and Native Americans who continue to vote against them in landslide numbers. Another possibility: The Dems get too fat and happy and fall into the corruption trap that has historically been their downfall.

Reader Mitchell Freedman comments on the Monday comment from ABQ GOP State Senator Mark Moores regarding the Scientific American article praising New Mexico's response to COVID:

Moores appears to be in good shape for re-election to a third term in his ABQ NE Heights seat. He has donated heavily to endangered GOP Senators in the ABQ metro.